Abstract
Background: Many clinical practice guidelines now include frequently asked “patient questions (PQ)” and their answers. Typically a PQ is of the form “If I have a temporomandibular disorder with symptom A, what prognosis can I expect if I receive treatment B?”
Purpose: To determine whether the internet can provide useful information to practitioners formulating PQ pertaining to temporomandibular disorders.
Method: On March 17, 2007, we searched three internet consultation/question websites using the keyword__??__??__??__??__(temporomandibular disorders), and we used a blog search engine to identify occurrences of the same keyword in blogs.
Results: There were several thousand hits on the search keyword in the three consultation/question websites. A large number of questions about temporomandibular disorders were associated with these hits. The symptoms most frequently reported by people with a temporomandibular disorder were impaired mouth opening and pain. Blogs with the keyword contained many instances of patients who used mouthpieces (splints) provided by their dentists. Based on this study, we formulated the PQ “Does wearing a mouthpiece effectively treat a temporomandibular disorder?”
Conclusion: Searching the internet provides information that helps to formulate PQ.
